(“At that Tower of Babel they knew what they were after,” sings Patti Smith in Land. Image from Physique Sacrée, ou Histoire-Naturelle de la Bible.)

1) This American Life on people bidding for the contents of abandoned self storage units in California. According to the Self Storage Association, there are 2.35 billion square feet in the United States. That's 7.4 square feet of self storage for every man, woman and child in the country, meaning all of us could stand inside self storage units at the same time. Plus: underwater Byzantine archaeology.

2) Mammoth on the best architecture of the decade.

3) On the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver: Will one venue be foreclosed before/during/after the games? Will another even have enough snow or might it necessitate a nightly Busby Berkeley meteorological extravaganza of snow machines billowing an artificial blizzard? Will you be among “the anti-capitalist, Indigenous, housing rights, labour, migrant justice, environmental, anti-war, community-loving, anti-poverty, civil libertarian, and anti colonial activists to come together to confront this two-week circus and the oppression it represents?”

4) Archinect on minarets.

5) Low-tech Magazine on the history of trolley canal boats. A short concluding section argues for bringing them back as a zero-emission transport system. Be sure to read this comment thread at The Oil Drum for counter-arguments.

6) Polar Inertia on seaside shacks. (Related: Coastal Retreat.)

7) On February 27, Foodprint NYC, an event organized by Nicola Twilley and Sarah Rich, will touch upon “how our urban food systems work today, how historical forces have shaped them till now, how they might develop in the future — and how these food systems, in turn, have shaped our environment and ourselves.”

8) Also on February 27 but on the other coast, the Los Angeles Urban Rangers will be wrapping up their 3-year Malibu Public Beach project by offering 3 mini-safaris. They're free and no sign-up is required. Just show up for any one of the tours, but don't plan to join mid-safari. (Previously: This Land Is Really Your Land.)

9) An exhibition on the 1910 Great Flood of Paris. If the flash website drives you up the wall, there is Paris Under Water, both the book and the blog.

10) Year-old NPR piece on grain silos converted into ice climbing walls. (Much earlier elsewhere: Climbing Mt. Improbable. Related: Ice Climbing in the Abandoned Malls of Foreclosure America.)